396 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
plain that the Belgica had been caught in the ice, he came 
to London in order to apply for a post on the Southern 
Cross. The other members of the staff included Dr. 
Herlof Klovstad as surgeon, Anton Fougner, Nicolai 
Hanson, an experienced natural history collector and zo- 
ologist employed at the time of his appointment at the 
Natural History Museum in London, and Hugh Black- 
well Evans, a typical young Englishman and thorough 
sportsman, as assistant zoologist. From such men much 
was to be expected. The expedition carried a number of 
dogs with two Lapps as dog-attendants. Although the 
Southern Cross had been equipped privately without con- 
sultation with the National Antarctic Expedition, which 
was then taking shape, and without any definite scheme 
for cooperation or arrangements for relief in case of dis- 
aster, Mr. Borchgrevink laid his plans before the Royai 
Geographical Society on the eve of sailing, and received 
a hearty send-off from many individuals interested in 
science as he left the Thames on August 22nd, 1898. The 
voyage to Hobart occupied ninety-eight days and after a 
short stay there the Southern Cross left for the south on 
December 19th. 
The ship soon fell in with the pack and had a long and 
difficult time in it. Despairing at last of getting through 
in the neighbourhood of Balleny Islands the commander 
worked northward again to the open sea after forty-eight 
days in the ice, and re-entered the pack farther east, where 
it was lighter. In six hours the pack was passed through 
and the Southern Cross ran into open water on February 
nth 1899, in latitude 70° S., longitude 174 0 E. Land 
was sighted on the 16th, and on February 17th the first 
anchor ever dropped within the Antarctic circle struck 
ground in Robertson Bay off the low peninsula where 
